Chants mystiques d'Algérie

Albumbeschreibung

These Chants mystiques (Mystical songs) come from oral traditions, perpetuated by the people of different regions of Algeria. There are of course Berber songs from the Aures Mountains, where Houria Aïchi comes from, but we also find others, collected in West Algeria or in the Constantine area. This repertoire has been orchestrated, with sobriety and precision, by Mohammed Abdenour, the art director of the El Gusto Orchestra who already penned the arrangements of Renayate, Aïchi’s previous creation. The bright resonances of her Bendir are reinforced by Adhil Mighani’s percussions or hand-clapping. The Oud, the Algerian mandole or the Sintir of the arranger, sometimes replaced or completed by Ali Bensadoun‘s Ney flute, form a harmonic framework on which the voice can lean. Alone, preceded or followed by choruses, Houria Aïchi’s clear and precise singing accompanies the trance process present in the extracts from repertoires of the Aissawa brotherhood (Sidi Slimane and Sidi Rached) and of the Mostaganem brotherhoods (Ziara). She emphasizes the stripped-down beauty of the Chant rituel du Gourara (Gurara ritual singing) in the Sahara. Sincere and respectful, Houria Aïchi offers these verses, that look towards the afterlife, an approach that is more universal than doctrinaire and that adopts their deep musicality. © BM/Qobuz